Gabe Swarr for Radiohead and AniBoom

Gabe Swarr was commissioned to create this Flash-animated musical piece below advertising Radiohead and AniBoom’s “In Rainbows Music Video Contest.” As Brew readers know, I’m not a fan of contests likethese, but of all the animation contests one could possibly enter, the AniBoom ones tend to be the least icky. For example, this particular contest is structured in such a way so that storyboards are judged first and you’re not being asked to submit an entirely finished product. Afterwards, the winning storyboards are even given a small sum of money to produce their videos.

As for Swarr’s piece, it’s a large leap from his usually recognizable work. He explains on his blog: “My approach was to keep as close to Radiohead’s established video style. My natural style is kind of opposite of that, so it was a cool creative challenge.”

This looks to me like the best contest i’ve seen offered online. Like you stated already, the process doesn’t ask for a herculean effort from the artist, the submissions are viewable to all animators logged in to aniboom, the creator’s work is immediately melded with the band radio head, and the money offered isn’t an insult. If you have a story to tell, you could do a lot worse than doing it with a Radiohead song as the soundtrack.

Stan B.

Nice budget piece. But what’s up with the top 40 teenybopper music?

Gobo

Wow, I almost wonder why they’re holding a contest for it: Gabe’s teaser video is great all by itself.

Teenybopper? Uh….?

http://gr8ball.blogspot.com Chrissy Fellmeth

holy crap. my two favorite things, cartoons and radiohead, together as one… I’m SO entering.

Ray P

Wow, Radiohead is anything but top 40 teenybopper music. I’d love to enter this too. Their video style has always been pretty nice.